Brechin railway station facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Brechin
Station on heritage railway
Location	Brechin, Angus Scotland
Coordinates	56°43′53″N 2°39′09″W / 56.731298°N 2.652414°W / 56.731298; -2.652414
Platforms	2
History
Original company	Aberdeen Railway
Pre-grouping	Caledonian Railway
Post-grouping	LMS
Key dates
1 February 1848	Opened by the Aberdeen Railway
4 August 1952	Closed to passengers
1981	Closed to all traffic
1993	Re-opened by Caledonian Railway (Brechin)
Listed Building – Category B
Designated	18 August 1986
Reference no.	LB22536

Brechin is a railway station located in Angus, Scotland. It is part of the Caledonian Railway line, which is a special type of railway called a heritage railway. This means it is often used for fun trips and to show how trains used to work in the past.

History of Brechin Station

Brechin station first opened its doors on February 1, 1848. When it first opened, four trains ran every day between Brechin and Montrose. The cost for a ticket between these two towns was quite different from today. A First Class ticket was 1 shilling and 4 pence, a Second Class ticket was 1 shilling, and a Third Class ticket was 8 pence.

The station buildings were built between 1847 and 1848. By 1872, people started to complain that the station was not in good condition and did not have comfortable places for passengers to wait. However, nothing changed until the Caledonian Railway company bought the Forfar and Brechin Railway in 1893.

The new owners then planned a big expansion for the station. This was mainly because the Brechin and Edzell District Railway was going to arrive soon. They started talking with the Brechin Town Council to buy land and make the streets wider. The changes began in 1895 with the expansion of the goods area, which is where items like mail and packages were handled. The passenger area of the station was then made bigger between 1897 and 1898. These new designs were created by Thomas Barr, who was the District Engineer from Perth.

Train Accidents at Brechin

During the expansion work, a serious accident happened at the station on August 27, 1895. A passenger train from Forfar was supposed to arrive at 9:00 AM, but it did not stop at the platform. Instead, it crashed through the end of the track and ended up on the road that led to the goods station. Several passengers on the train were very shaken up, but luckily, no one was seriously hurt. An official investigation was held on September 10, 1895, by Colonel George William Addison.

Another serious accident happened shortly after the station was made bigger, on November 2, 1898. The driver of a goods train from Forfar lost control of his train as it was coming down a slope towards the station. The train hit the buffer stops at the end of the line and broke through them. It then crossed the platform and crashed through the stone wall of the station building, finally stopping in the booking hall. Many support columns were destroyed, and part of the platform roof collapsed. The driver and fireman managed to jump off the train before it left the tracks and were not badly injured. Sadly, eleven cattle trucks were destroyed, and 88 cattle were killed or hurt. The driver, John Habenton, was blamed for not controlling his train properly.

Station Closure

The station stopped offering passenger train services on August 4, 1952. The very last passenger train on that line was the 6:13 PM train from Montrose, which had three first-class carriages. Passenger services on the Forfar-Brechin and Brechin-Bridge of Dun-Montrose lines were stopped to save money. The railway company wanted to save about £11,000 each year.

Brechin Station Today

In 2023, an old footbridge that was built in 1877 and used to be in Glasgow will be rebuilt at Brechin station. This shows how the station is being preserved and used as a heritage railway.

Preceding station	Heritage railways			Following station
Terminus		Caledonian Railway (Brechin)		Bridge of Dun
Historical railways
Terminus		Caledonian Railway Aberdeen Railway		Bridge of Dun
Terminus		Caledonian Railway Forfar and Brechin Railway		Careston
Terminus		Caledonian Railway Brechin and Edzell District Railway		Stracathro

Images for kids

• 

  The station front in 1974

• 

  A view of the tracks from the station

Sources

• Butt, R.V.J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st Edition ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.

• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.
• Caledonian Railway (Brechin) Ltd